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Steve White Steve White Let me start by saying that I am mostly a hands-on manager type, who loves problem solving. I view computers and programming as simply a means to an end. I am self-taught and approach program design based on my years of frustration with Corporate programmers, who frankly didn't have a clue and were too arrogant to listen to us peons in the field. That said, here is my checkered past.

After my various blue collar work experiences and Vietnam, I got an Accounting degree and went to work as a Steamship Accountant in a large Portland, Oregon based forest products company. Next went to work for Boise Cascade Corp. in Salem, Oregon. Job progression was Plant Accountant, Controller, Salesman, Salesmanager, General Manager in 2 year increments. Lived in Oregon, North Carolina, Ohio and now Tennesse, although I am rarely home.

Corporate buyout and I was fired. Took a General Manager position in Tennesse for a multi-plant family owned company. I quit in 1994 and went to work for an old friend, who owned several plants. Short version is that I had to cool my heels for 18 months of non-compete lawsuit. They needed help, and gave me time to try and solve some of their problems. With no programming background except spreadsheets, I chose Paradox, bought 4 or 5 books and fairly quickly developed some solutions that pulled data from their accounting package. I continued to gain more skill with Paradox, but it was a very steep learning curve. I had the beginnings for a system.

Then another friend told me that he was going to start his own plant in Indiana. I quit and he became the guinea pig plant. Fast forward to today. I now have 11 box plants, and 1 foam rubber fabricator using my application to run all aspects of their plants except accounting. The app includes Customer Service, Production Scheduling, Costing and Pricing, Invoicing, Sales Analysis, Production statistics, etc etc. This was only feasible, because I was already and expert in the box business. Marketing was all by referral.

Along the way I developed another application that provided analytical capability to the field leaders of a large network marketing company (Not Amway). The corporation recently purchased the rights to the program. Their programmers are duplicating the functionality, but re-writing it to fit their existing systems. This is a testament to Paradox. I sent them the source code. They were able to work through the code and have never called me. This also taught me that selling software to the general public is like running a day care center. Never again.

I also do pure managerial consulting. I enjoy helping people, who frankly did not have the advantage of learning management in the corporate world. I feel lucky to have ended up doing what I enjoy, fixing messed up organizations. Sometimes that requires solitary programming and sometimes that requires on-site investigation, consultation with employees and blunt feedback to managers and owners.

I must also comment that my learning curve would have been less steep had I known about these forums. I came to the party late. I am very impressed with the absolutely wild, elegant,and amazing things that you real programmers invent. I wish I had the time and the energy to study some of these solutions. Unfortunately, I am covered up with customer demands and requests for my time. The next hurdle for me will be Internet access to my customers data. Customers are starting to ask me to do this. I see that there are several solutions out there. I either have to find the time or farm it out.


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